


Forgiveness

by androgynousclintbarton



Series: Mafia Au [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Mafia AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:48:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28336455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/androgynousclintbarton/pseuds/androgynousclintbarton
Summary: Kakashi has noticed a dramatic change in Gai's personality since his return from a personal mission, and it's about time he get to the bottom of it. Before he loses Gai forever.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi/Maito Gai | Might Guy
Series: Mafia Au [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970116
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29
Collections: KakaGai Week 2020 entries





	Forgiveness

Three days. 

For three days Gai hadn’t said a single word to him. No ‘good mornings’ or ‘good nights’, nothing when Kakashi would try to talk to him about the new job that Shikaku had given him, and not even a ‘thank you’ when he brought Gai his favorite doughnut from the coffee shop he stopped at every morning. 

Not a peep. It was starting to worry him. Gai always loved talking. Telling him stories about the things he did growing up with his dad, getting other people from the communities that they would visit to talk to him. It was Gai’s favorite pastime to get Kakashi to talk, or to at least fill in the silence between them as much as possible. 

But ever since he had gotten back from taking care of some personal business, Gai had been silent.

As his partner finished making the trade that Shikaku had sent them to do, closing the small bag of money and tossing it over to Kakashi without even looking at him, Kakashi watched as a small smile tugged at the corner of Gai’s lips.

“It was good doing business with you,” he said with the same cheerful voice he used to talk to everyone. It didn’t matter if they were another member of Shikaku’s gang or someone whose arm he was about to break, Gai always kept that cheerful, happy voice of his. “Do try to tell your partners not to shoot at us. I think all of them would like to live through today.”

Well, that was certainly new. Gai usually wasn’t the one to throw threats around like that. He usually preferred to leave that particular job up to Kakashi. Maybe it was just another way to show his partner just how upset he was with him?

Seeing his partner turn his back to the other man, Kakashi moved to follow. His hand reached down to his side in a flash and unholstered his gun just as three figures sprang out into the open from their various hiding places all around the room. Within seconds, all three of them were dead on the ground, and for once Gai didn’t even flinch when the sound of gunfire echoed in the small room. 

Something was definitely wrong, and he wasn’t sure he could wait around any longer to see if Gai would just ‘get over it’ like he originally hoped.

Holstering his weapon, he followed Gai out of the building and to the car that had brought them to the meet up location. It wasn’t preferable for him to have to talk to Gai about whatever was going on while there was another person driving them around, but it seemed like the only option he had. As soon as they got back to Shikaku’s mansion Gai was going to disappear into his room just as he had done the past two days. 

He couldn’t let that happen. 

As soon as he had crawled into the car behind Gai, Kakashi slammed the door shut behind him and reached out towards the controls for the small window between the back of the car, and the front where the driver was. 

“Five minutes,” he assured the driver when he glared back at Kakashi. For some reason he was always so uneasy with the idea of Kakashi closing the window between them to have a personal conversation with Gai. Almost like he thought something was going to happen.

Not that Kakashi would say no if Gai decided to try and get him naked, but that didn’t seem likely in his current situation. 

Once the driver had given him a quick nod of his head, Kakashi pushed down on the button and watched as the window between them closed. With that done he turned his attention to Gai.

“Are we going to talk yet?” Gai returned his question with a blank stare. “Come on, Gai. It has been three days. The fact that you’ve managed to keep quiet more than an hour is already impressive, are you going for a record?”

No response. 

“Gai, whatever it is that has you so upset, spit it out,” he demanded with a low growl. “We can’t keep working together if you’re not even going to talk to me!”

Gai snapped. That was the only way Kakashi could describe it. The sudden shift from disinterest to pure rage when his eyes finally met Kakashi’s was terrifying. He had never seen Gai look so furious at someone. 

“You want to talk about working together? You? The guy who left without so much as a word and disappeared for two weeks!?” Kakashi’s heart sank. Was that what this was all about? Did Gai think…

Giving his head a shake, Kakashi lowered his eyes. “That wasn’t your job to do. It was mine. I had to do it alone.”

“No, you didn’t,” Gai snarled. A deep, angry sound that Kakashi had never heard him make before. It terrified him. “I am your partner. I’m supposed to be by your side for every job. Even ones Shikaku doesn’t clear you for.”

“That’s not…” His hands came down to rest on his legs, fingers twisting in the soft black fabric of his pants. “It wasn’t a job, Gai. I didn’t get paid for it. No-one asked me to do it. It was something I had to do, alone.”

“No, you chose to do it alone,” Gai clarified, the anger still dripping in his words. “You decided that you couldn’t trust me by your side. That I’d just be in the way…”

“No!” The car came to a hard stop, and for once Kakashi was glad that he had chosen to wear his seatbelt or he would have gone flying into the other side of the vehicle. He was about to yell at the driver when the window between them began to open, but he wasn’t quick enough. Instead Gai leaned forward and smacked his hand down on the ‘close’ button, glaring at the driver as the window shut once more. 

With their privacy returned to them, Kakashi took a deep breath and raised his eyes to meet Gai’s once more. 

“I chose to go alone because it was my obligation,” he explained with a stern voice. “My closure. If I had brought you with me all I would have been doing is putting you in needless danger.”

“And if you had asked me I would have told you that I would gladly go with you to make sure you came out alive.” Kakashi tried to divert his gaze, but as soon as his eyes left Gai a hand came up to rest against his cheek. With a small push, Gai forced him to look back at those angry eyes. “Two weeks, Kakashi. Two weeks with no call, no messages. I thought you were…”

Anger shattered, exposing the sadness that Gai had been hiding. It broke Kakashi’s heart to see it. The usually bright and happy eyes looking at him with such a broken expression. The result of the damage he had done to his partner with his actions. 

“If you had died out there and the last thing I had ever said to you was ‘don’t forget my doughnut’, I would never forgive myself.” Gai’s thumb started to stroke his cheek. The feeling managed to centre Kakashi in a moment that felt so broken and confusing. “I know why you went. I know why this was important to you, Kakashi. Shikaku told me everything.”

Of course he had. Shikaku had never been one to let Kakashi keep his secrets if he decided that someone needed to know about them, and Gai needed to know. Gai, who was clearly upset and broken by Kakashi’s choice to disappear without a trace, and who had no idea why. 

“What would you say?” Kakashi asked, leaning into Gai’s hand and keeping his eyes focused on that beautiful calm face that he loved so much. “If you had known that I was going into a situation where I might not come out alive, but there was nothing you could do to stop me. What would you say, Gai? Stop? Please don’t? Would you try to tell me that it wasn’t worth it?”

Maybe he’d be right. Perhaps finding the man who had killed his father really wasn’t worth it. After all, it was just a hired hit man. Someone who was given money to take out the local Police Chief. He held no real power or influence.

It probably wasn’t worth it, but he had still felt the need to do it. To seek out some closure in making sure that the bastard never got to kill another person in front of their kid again. That no-one had to live the nightmare that continued to haunt him to this day. 

“I love you.” 

The words caught him off guard. Of all the things that Gai could have said to him at that moment, this was the last thing that he expected.

“If I had thought what I said to you that day two weeks ago might be my last words to you ever, I would have told you how much I love you. How amazing and strong I think you are, and how I would do anything to make sure you come home alive.”

For the first time in three days Kakashi finally understood why Gai was so angry at him. It wasn’t just about leaving without a word, or seemingly not having the trust in his partner to have his back. Those were certainly influences in Gai’s anger and he had made that much clear already, but the hurt that he displayed at the thought of never getting to see Kakashi again and knowing that he never got to say those words to him. 

That spoke volumes.

Raising his hand, Kakashi rested it over Gai’s and gently curled his fingers around it. There wasn’t anything he could think of that would make it up to Gai. Something that would take away those two weeks of panic and worry that he must have experienced, not knowing what was going on. Whether Kakashi was alive or dead.

But that wasn’t what he wanted to say.

He wasn’t sorry for leaving. For keeping Gai safe both from danger and from having to see the bloodbath that Kakashi left behind. Gai wouldn’t have been able to handle everything that Kakashi had done during those two weeks of absence, and it wasn’t fair to expect him to just so that Kakashi had someone watching his back. 

“I’m sorry.” The words were barely audible, but he could tell that Gai heard them from the way his face softened. “I’m sorry I took that away from you. That you had to think you’d never get to say those words to me.”

It probably wasn’t the apology that Gai was looking for, but his thumb still continued to gently graze along Kakashi’s cheek so he hadn’t said something terribly offensive. 

Bringing Gai’s hand forward, Kakashi leaned in and gently pressed a kiss to the back of his hand. A silent apology that he hoped Gai heard. One that he wasn’t quite able to put into words.

_ I’m sorry for worrying you. _

“Just don’t do it again, please,” Gai begged. “I don’t want to lose you, Kakashi.”

Thinking about it, Kakashi lowered his and Gai’s hands between them and slowly leaned in close, pressing a gentle kiss against Gai’s lips. “Never again.” A soft promise against Gai’s lips. “By the way,” he moved back, smiling softly when Gai looked at him with confusion, “I love you too.”


End file.
